Happy Monday and happy April! It’s a great month for books, and I’m excited to share 12 highly anticipated releases with you today. The ones on my radar range from romance to fantasy to a great-sounding contemporary YA novel. Let’s check them out!
April 2nd: The Cemetery of Untold Stories
Title: The Cemetery of Untold Stories
Author: Julia Alvarez
Page Length: 256
Publication Date: Aprils 2, 2024
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Synopsis:Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories , doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and revisions, and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.
Alma wants her characters to rest in peace. But they have other ideas, and the cemetery becomes a mysterious sanctuary for their true narratives. Filomena, a local woman hired as the groundskeeper, becomes a sympathetic listener as Alma’s characters unspool their secret tales. Among Bienvenida, the abandoned second wife of dictator Rafael Trujillo, consigned to oblivion by history, and Manuel Cruz, a doctor who fought in the Dominican underground and escaped to the United States.
The characters defy their they talk back to her and talk to one another behind her back, rewriting and revising themselves. The Cemetery of Untold Stories Whose stories get to be told, and whose buried? Finally, Alma finds the meaning she and her characters yearn for in the everlasting vitality of stories.
Readers of Isabel Allende’s Violeta and Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead will devour Alvarez’s extraordinary new novel about beauty and authenticity that reminds us the stories of our lives are never truly finished, even at the end.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
April 2nd: Draw Down the Moon
Title: Draw Down the Moon
Author: P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
Page Length: 336
Publication Date: April 2, 2024
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Synopsis: Wren Nightingale isn’t supposed to have any powers. Born of magickal parents but not under a moon sign, she was destined for life as a Mundane—right up until she starts glowing on her eighteenth birthday. In a heartbeat, Wren’s life is turned upside down, and she’s suddenly leaving her home for the mystical Academia de la Luna—a secret magickal school on a hidden island off the Seattle coast.
Lee Young has always known about his future at the Academia. He has one goal: pass the trials, impress the Moon Council, and uphold his family’s reputation. But he wasn’t expecting to be attending alongside the girl he’s been secretly in love with for as long as he can remember.
As Wren and Lee are thrown into the Academie’s gruelling trials, they quickly learn there’s something different–and dangerous–about the school this year. Wren will have to navigate a web of secrets, prophecies–and murder. And Lee will have to decide who to protect–his family’s legacy, or the girl he loves.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
April 2nd: Otherworldly
Title: Otherworldly
Author: F.T. Lukens
Page Length: 320
Publication Date: April 2, 2023
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Synopsis: A skeptic and a supernatural being make a crossroads deal to achieve their own ends only to get more than they bargained for in this lively young adult romantic adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of Spell Bound and So This Is Ever After.
Seventeen-year-old Ellery is a non-believer in a region where people swear the supernatural is real. Sure, they’ve been stuck in a five-year winter, but there’s got to be a scientific explanation. If goddesses were real, they wouldn’t abandon their charges like this, leaving farmers like Ellery’s family to scrape by.
Knox is a familiar from the Other World, a magical assistant sent to help humans who have made crossroads bargains. But it’s been years since he heard from his queen, and Knox is getting nervous about what he might find once he returns home. When the crossroads demons come to collect Knox, he panics and runs. A chance encounter down an alley finds Ellery coming to Knox’s rescue, successfully fending off his would-be abductors.
Ellery can’t quite believe what they’ve seen. And they definitely don’t believe the nonsense this unnervingly attractive guy spews about his paranormal origins. But Knox needs to make a deal with a human who can tether him to this realm, and Ellery needs to figure out how to stop this winter to help their family. Once their bargain is struck, there’s no backing out, and the growing connection between the two might just change everything.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
April 3rd: Amulet
Title: Amulet
Author: Kathryn Amurra
Series: Heart’s True Desire
Genre: Contemporary Romance with Mystical Elements / Paranormal Romance
Publication Date: April 3, 2024
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Synopsis: Intelligent, charismatic, and successful, Val Nikolov has achieved everything he’s ever wanted, thanks to a wish made on his grandmother’s magical amulet.
Alex Weaver, however, can’t seem to get her life in order. As a temp-agency lawyer helping Val’s company prepare to be acquired, Alex has no hope that she will ever land a full-time job as an attorney (or convince her boyfriend to marry her).
When one of Val’s key engineers abruptly departs, the acquisition is suddenly at risk. Hoping to salvage the deal, Val asks Alex to travel with him to Israel for a meeting with the decision-makers. The more time Val and Alex spend together, however, the more they question the things they thought were most important in their lives. Soon, they find themselves at a crossroads, having to choose between the lives they’ve always wished for and their hearts’ true desire.
LINKS: Amazon | Nook | Goodreads
April 9th: The Hemlock Queen
Title: The Hemlock Queen
Author: Hannah Whitten
Series: The Nightshade Crown
Page Length: 400
Publication Date: April 9, 2024
Publisher: Orbit
Synopsis: In the second installment of New York Times bestselling author Hannah Whitten’s lush, romantic epic fantasy series, a young woman who can raise the dead must navigate the dangerous and glamorous world of the Sainted King’s royal court.
The corrupt king August is dead. Prince Bastian has seized the throne and raised Lore—a necromancer and former smuggler—to his right hand side. Together they plan to cut out the rot from the heart of the sainted court and help the people of Dellaire. But not everyone is happy with the changes. The nobles are sowing dissent, the Kyrithean Empire is beating down their door, and Lore’s old allies are pulling away. Even Prince Bastian’s changed. No longer the hopeful, rakish, charismatic man Lore knows and loves, instead he’s reckless, domineering and cold.
And something’s been whispering in her ear. A voice, dark and haunting, that’s telling her there’s more to the story than she knows and more to her power than she can even imagine. A truth buried deep that could change everything.
With Bastian’s coronation fast approaching and enemies whispering on all sides, Lore must figure out how to protect herself, her prince, and her country before they all come crumbling down and whatever dark power has been creeping through the catacombs is unleashed.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
April 9th: A Promise of Peridot
Title: A Promise of Peridot
Author: Kate Golden
Series: The Sacred Stones #2
Page Length: 464
Publication Date: April 9, 2024
Publisher: Berkely
Synopsis: A prophecy of death. A weapon of hope. A sacrifice of love.
Arwen Valondale is sailing for the mysterious Kingdom of Citrine after the battle of Siren’s Bay. Reeling from shocking revelations and her newfound powers, Arwen directs all of her pain and rage toward the man who betrayed her: King Kane Ravenwood.
Kane’s presence is unavoidable as he travels with Arwen and her friends to seek the Blade of the Sun, a legendary weapon inextricably tied to her fate and the future of the realm. Even an uneasy truce proves difficult as Arwen fights against her unresolved feelings for Kane, who is willing to become darkness itself to protect her.
As Arwen faces creatures, foes, and magic beyond her wildest imaginings, she must discover the secrets of her past to defeat the monstrous Fae king Lazarus. But finding the light within might mean the death of her and everyone she loves.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
April 9th: The Familiar
Title: The Familiar
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Page Length: 400
Publication Date: April 9, 2024
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Synopsis: In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family’s social position.
What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England’s heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king’s favor.
Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
April 9th: Fallen
Title: Fallen
Author: Kat Kinney
Series: Everwood Falls #2
Page Length: 265
Publication Date: April 9, 2024
Synopsis: EVERWOOD FALLS… a small supernatural community tucked up in the Colorado Rockies where witches, werewolves and vampires can live without fear of discovery, and those with curses they can’t control are sent to keep the existence of magic from being revealed to Mundanes.
Once one of thousands of angels who fought against the Underworld at the command of the Archangels, Lucien Girard had his wings broken as punishment for defying angelic law. His crime? Trying to change the fate of the human woman he’d fallen in love with. Centuries later, he bears the curse the Archangels handed down… To fall in love again and again, each time with a new woman who shares the face of the soulmate he failed to save thousands of years before. When Dr. Isabel Romero moves to Everwood Falls, Lucien vows to stay as far away from her as possible, not knowing any other way to prevent her death like all the others who have come before her. But someone from Isabel’s past is stalking her and Lucien can’t simply leave her to her fate. He knows this time will be no different. And yet he refuses to let her go.
Dr. Isabel Romero lives with guilt for the people she’s harmed. The night she died, her life was saved by Costa, a vampire who changed her into one of the undead. But becoming a vampire meant she had to leave her parents behind, only visiting once per year according to vampire law so no one would notice that she isn’t aging. Gifted with a rare healing magic, she saves lives that are beyond her abilities to heal as a doctor. Moving to Everwood Falls is supposed to be a fresh start, but her magic has a dark side and someone from her past is hunting her. The last thing she wants is to be responsible for someone else getting hurt, and that means she can’t allow anyone to get close to her. But she’s going to need Lucien Girard’s help if they’re going to catch the person harming patients in Everwood Falls before someone is seriously hurt.
With a herd of enchanted elk, carnivorous spruce trees, and sentient pumpkins that stalk the local landscaping, Everwood Falls is a quirky mountain town where scales and fur mean found family.
April 23rd: Finally Fitz
Title: Finally Fitz
Author: Marisa Kanter
Page Length: 400
Publication Date: April 23, 2024
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Synopsis: A bisexual teen girl tries to make her ex jealous by faking an Instagram romance that leads to surprisingly real feelings in this hijinks-filled rom-com perfect for fans of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and She Gets the Girl.
Ava “Fitz” Fitzgerald has worked hard to create the picture-perfect life she’s always wanted. She spent her junior year transforming her passion for sustainable fashion and upcycling into a viral online platform, maintaining a 4.0 GPA, and spending every free second with her soon-to-graduate girlfriend, Danica. And this summer she plans to take it all to the next level by attending a prestigious summer fashion program in New York City and convincing Dani that they can survive a year of long distance.
But when Dani dumps her before classes even start, accusing Fitz of being more invested in growing her online persona than deepening their relationship, she’s left not only heartbroken, but also creatively blocked.
Fitz will do anything to win Dani back, even if that means taking a break from the platform that she’s worked so hard to build. But just as she decides to go all-in on a hiatus, a chance encounter reunites her with Levi Berkowitz, her childhood best friend that she hasn’t seen since elementary school. Levi is struggling with heartbreak of his own, and this cosmic coincidence sparks a new use for her social media savvy. Fitz offers to help Levi craft a fake relationship online to make his person jealous…if in return he can pretend to be her boyfriend in front of Dani to make her jealous. If all goes according to plan, by the end of the summer they’ll both be reunited with their perfect partners and get to rekindle their friendship in the process.
Sometimes even the most carefully designed plans can come apart at the seams, though. And when real history leads to not-so-fake feelings, Fitz will have to decide if she’s finally willing to let go of what she thought was picture-perfect and choose what might actually be right for her.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
April 23rd: Song of the Six Realms
Title: Song of the Six Realms
Author: Judy I. Lin
Page Length: 400
Publication Date: April 23, 2024
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Synopsis: Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her kindly poet uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at one of the most esteemed entertainment houses in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before entering the House of Flowing Water, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a bandit attack, she is devastated to lose her last connection to a life outside of her indenture contract.
With no family and no patron, Xue is facing the possibility of a lifetime of servitude playing the qin for nobles that praise her talent with one breath and sneer at her lowly social status with the next. Then one night she is unexpectedly called to the garden to put on a private performance for the enigmatic Duke Meng. The young man is strangely kind and awkward for nobility, and surprises Xue further with an irresistible offer: serve as a musician in residence at his manor for one year, and he’ll set her free of her indenture.
But the Duke’s motives become increasingly more suspect when he and Xue barely survive an attack by a nightmarish monster, and when he whisks her away to his estate, she discovers he’s not just some country noble: He’s the Duke of Dreams, one of the divine rulers of the Celestial Realm. There she learns the Six Realms are on the brink of disaster, and incursions by demonic beasts are growing more frequent.
The Duke needs Xue’s help to unlock memories from her past that could hold the answers to how to stop the impending war… but first Xue will need to survive being the target of every monster and deity in the Six Realms.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
April 25th: A Letter to the Luminous Deep
Title: A Letter to the Luminous Deep
Author: Sylvie Cathrall
Series: The Sunken Archives
Page Length: 432
Publication Date: April 25, 2024
Publisher: Orbit
Synopsis: A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.
Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.’s home, and she and Henerey vanish.
A year later, E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery of their siblings’ disappearances with the letters, sketches and field notes left behind. As they uncover the wondrous love their siblings shared, Sophy and Vyerin learn the key to their disappearance – and what it could mean for life as they know it.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
April 30th: Return of the Vengeful Queen
Title: Return of the Vengeful Queen
Author: C.J. Redwine
Series: Rise of the Vicious Princess
Page Length: 352
Publication Date: April 30, 2024
Publisher: Balzar + Bray
Synopsis: Charis Willowthorn is a queen without a throne. A Rakuuna invader holds Charis’s kingdom of Calera captive, leaving her desperate—and ruthlessly committed to vengeance. But with her allies reluctant to intervene and her enemies hunting her across the open sea, Charis is left with only one forge a temporary alliance with Tal Penbyrn, the boy who betrayed her—and, at all costs, keep him out of her heart.
Tal is imprisoned, both by the Rakuuna’s isolated castle and the weight of his guilt. Though he once betrayed his love, he knows that he can help turn the tide in Charis’s favor, if only he can regain her trust. But the Rakuuna have an ally of their own—one who knows Charis’s every move and will stop at nothing to see her destroyed.
With threats closing in and every allegiance in doubt, Charis must be stronger, faster, and more vicious than her enemies to reclaim her kingdom—and her future.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Cemetery of Untold Stories is on my radar. It just sounds so good.
I hope you get a chance to read it soon!
Thank you so much, Julie!
I am really excited for The Familiar!
I want to hear all about Cathrall’s book! That one has been catching my attention for a while now. I hope you love it…and the rest of these.
Thank you! It sounds so good!!
I included Draw Down the Moon and Song of the Six realms on my April releases post, too! They sound like great reads. So many of the books you included have really cool covers!
Thanks, Christina! I hope you get a chance to read both!
Of these, The Familiar is one I’m really looking forward to!
It sounds fantastic!